Mendon’s senior starters are subbed out near the end of Tuesday’s loss to Gobles.
(Photo by Wes Morgan)
An appearance at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center was not to be for the Mendon girls basketball team, which already raised the bar with the program’s first ever regional championship.
Near the end of Tuesday’s 49-40 Class C state quarterfinal loss to undefeated Gobles, Hornets coach Leasa Griffith pulled the starters and reality started to sink in for the eight seniors in particular.
Alexis Russell walked to the bench fighting tears. Jenna Griffith sat down and smacked the floor. Brooke Howard buried her face in her jersey. After collecting themselves, they emerged from the locker room and reflected on the 20-3 season and what all was accomplished.
Mendon head coach Leasa Griffith
On the Hornets playing not to lose in the fourth quarter: “That’s the tough part, getting them back around. It sits right in their heads. We’ve had somewhat of an issue with that before, where maybe you don’t hit a shot, so that sticks with you and you don’t want to take another shot.
“I thought Jenna stepped up and hit some big shots for us tonight, then all the sudden she was covered. If Brooke was covered and Jenna was covered we sort of faltered a little bit. Not to fault the play of the girls because they certainly played their hearts out.”
On coming out strong in the third quarter: “We came into the locker room exactly where we came into the locker room at Gobles — one point up. When we came out of the locker room at Gobles in the third quarter we had huge turnovers and they scored either four or six points right off the bat. So we talked about that that couldn’t happen. We handled their press pretty well tonight. Credit Buzz with all of that because he drew up the press break. We kept reversing it and finding open people up the floor. That part of the game plan, at least, came together.”
Mendon senior Brooke Howard
On the program’s first appearance in the state quarterfinals: “All of the hard work that finally paid off. This was the senior season that I wanted and I needed. Of course you always want to go one step farther and one game farther, but I’m overall happy with how far we went. We made school history, which is the least I could ask for.”
Mendon senior Grace Leighton
On the overall season: “I’m sure all of us would give anything to be able to play one more game, it’s never fun to lose especially coming this far but I wouldn’t have wanted it with any other group of girls. This is a great team and I love all these girls and the community that gives us so much support. I didn’t want it to end but we had a great season.”
Mendon senior Alexis Russell
On the year in general: “It was an awesome season, as hard as losing tonight was, looking back on the season it was more successful than we could have even hoped for throughout the season we worked through some team difficulties we had and were able to do something a Mendon girls basketball team has never done before. We all wanted to go another game but making history is something to be proud of.”
Mendon senior Jenna Griffith
On the reality of never playing for the Hornets again: “It’s definitely tough. We’re a team of eight seniors who have played a lot of basketball together, starting in 5th grade. It’s tough to imagine not being in the gym tomorrow with the girls practicing. It’s also hard to imagine never wearing that jersey anymore. That being said, it’s been a great season and we accomplished something no girls team in Mendon has ever done. This loss is especially hard because we were so close and just a few key plays would have changed the game. We fought until the end and that’s all you can do.”